a word from the commander - civil air patrol · november 2015. a word from the commander . we are...

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The Safety Beacon is for informational purposes. Simply reading the Beacon does not satisfy your monthly safety education requirements but unit safety officers are encouraged to use the articles in the Beacon as topics for their monthly safety briefings and discussions. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ November 2015 A Word From the Commander We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP National Commander, Major General Joseph Vazquez, has written an excellent article about his philosophy and thoughts when giving a check ride in a CAP aircraft. Check rides can be stressful events for the person receiving the check ride, and the person giving it. A veteran of many many check rides, Gen Vazquez gives us his thoughts on how to conduct a check ride so it provides the best and fairest look at the qualifications of the person receiving the check ride, but also recognizes some of the hazards that go along with the demanding sortie profiles. He shares some great ideas that help mitigate the risks inherent in these demanding sorties. As a person who has given a LOT of check rides in my day, I enjoyed reading the article, and I think all of our readers will learn something from his philosophy, whether you’re a crew member or not. Turn the page…… ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What Else Is New This Month? - There is also an excellent article on how to “take advantage of your people.” It is targeted at the commanders out there with advice on how to properly use their safety officers, but it carries a message for everyone… trust your people to be the experts in their jobs. - We’re taking a fresh look at ground handling mishaps and maintenance related mishaps and we need your help. Read about being a part of the team. - I’ll take a look at our annual safety survey that is on-going, with some suggestions you’ve made and some feedback on the quality of the survey responses. - There are a few short topics and updates to let you know what we’re working on and hopefully a few things that will help you out. - Check out our monthly mishap close-outs and a sampling of our recent hazard reports. Lot’s to learn from these.

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Page 1: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

The Safety Beacon is for informational purposes. Simply reading the Beacon does not satisfy your monthly safety education requirements

but unit safety officers are encouraged to use the articles in the Beacon as topics for their monthly safety briefings and discussions. ________________________________________________________________________________________________

November 2015

A Word From the Commander

We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP National Commander, Major General Joseph Vazquez, has written an excellent article about his philosophy and thoughts when giving a check ride in a CAP aircraft. Check rides can be stressful events for the person receiving the check ride, and the person giving it. A veteran of many many check rides, Gen Vazquez gives us his thoughts on how to conduct a check ride so it provides the best and fairest look at the qualifications of the person receiving the check ride, but also recognizes some of the hazards that go along with the demanding sortie profiles. He shares some great ideas that help mitigate the risks inherent in these demanding sorties. As a person who has given a LOT of check rides in my day, I enjoyed reading the article, and I think all of our readers will learn something from his philosophy, whether you’re a crew member or not. Turn the page…… ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What Else Is New This Month?

- There is also an excellent article on how to “take advantage of your people.” It is targeted at the commanders out there with advice on how to properly use their safety officers, but it carries a message for everyone… trust your people to be the experts in their jobs. - We’re taking a fresh look at ground handling mishaps and maintenance related mishaps and we need your help. Read about being a part of the team. - I’ll take a look at our annual safety survey that is on-going, with some suggestions you’ve made and some feedback on the quality of the survey responses. - There are a few short topics and updates to let you know what we’re working on and hopefully a few things that will help you out. - Check out our monthly mishap close-outs and a sampling of our recent hazard reports. Lot’s to learn from these.

Page 2: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

Check Pilot Survival Notes

By: Major General Joseph Vazquez Civil Air Patrol National Commander

It’s been 28 years since I started giving CAPF-5 and (when they became separate) CAPF-91 check rides. In that time, I’ve seen CAP requirements become more demanding, with increases in the training required prior to a check ride. Despite that, the basics of the check ride have stayed mostly constant – a check pilot evaluates the pilot to the standards required, and based on judgment passes or fails the applicant. Many times, an applicant shows up a little “rusty” in one or more flight maneuvers, and if not too egregious a check pilot will have them try it again or as part of a

different maneuver. While we stress evaluation first, it is not uncommon for check pilots to provide some instruction after an applicant successfully demonstrates a maneuver, to show a better way of doing it. But one area requiring great care is what we actually ask our applicant to do. CAPF-5s are one of the more hazardous sorties pilots engage in, creating more landing and takeoff incidents than other types of CAP flying. As a check pilot, you have it within your power to promote a safe flight, or set things up that virtually guarantee a mishap! There are a number of “rules” I’ve come up with over the years, to govern the way I conduct a CAPF-5 or CAPF-91. There are likely many others, but in the interest of sharing here are eight check ride rules I always employ: 1) Never ask a pilot to do anything you are not proficient in doing yourself. Self-explanatory! 2) Don’t specify unsafe parameters. A case in point – short field landing demonstrations. I always select a long runway to do this, never an actual short one. I also specify a displaced threshold, not the actual beginning of the runway, as the start of the simulated short field. Lastly, I demand the applicant not use anything other than normal braking after landing. 3) Avoid creating an overwhelming distraction on short final. You REALLY don’t want to explain why you panicked an applicant into snatching up all the flaps and dropping an airplane on its tail! Realistic distractions or calmly stated requests to go around – okay. But think again about popping your window open and screaming “look out” … the joke may be on you!

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Page 3: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

4) ALWAYS establish who has the controls, and the mechanism for transferring control. “I thought Sam had it” is a poor excuse for why you let an aircraft taxi into the back of the fuel truck! 5) Guard the controls as if an applicant is a first time solo student. I don’t care if Fred has 10,000+ hours – today might be a very bad day for Fred, which could make it a very bad day for you too, if you’re not mentally flying the aircraft every moment! You really need to be prepared to act as a flight instructor, and provide corrective inputs if things are going south. Which brings me to… 6) Don’t let things go too far out of parameters! Students learn by making small errors, and instructors have to allow students the latitude to go outside of optimal to learn. Likewise, evaluators need to determine if applicants are consistently, or only rarely, outside of evaluation standards. But just as with students, once things go beyond small errors and into unsafe territory, action must be taken. My criteria are simple – I let them take it to the point of failing standards, or to a point I can still safely recover the aircraft (whichever comes first). Once that point is reached, I take over and it’s time to land and talk things over. 7) Never make it too easy or too hard. As check pilots, we have wide latitude to specify what needs to be demonstrated, and what does not. But making it too easy with few demonstrations (“I just can’t fail the wing commander!”) or too hard with many demonstrations (“time to take that airline pilot down a few notches.”) is failing a basic tenant of evaluation – impartiality. If you are evaluating for the same flight privileges, there should be no difference between what you ask a 300 hour or a 3000 hour pilot to do. 8) Trust - but verify. Check the weather. Double check the flight plan. Always do an independent quick walk around the airplane before climbing in to confirm the pilot really did disconnect the tow bar, put the gas caps back on, etc. When I take off as a check pilot I figure I’m “buying” that airplane and I’m ultimately responsible for making sure everything is done correctly. In conclusion, it should be noted there are many good practices related to check rides, and likely I missed some of the better ones. But however you do it, recognizing your own limitations and taking nothing for granted with check ride applicants is always a good approach. Let’s do what we can, and make flight evaluations a less hazardous (and less stressful) operation for everyone concerned. Editor’s note: This article contains Gen Vazquez’ personal techniques and “rules” learned through many years of flying check rides, offered to help keep us all a bit safer when flying these sorties. Nothing in this article is meant to over-ride expressed check ride guidance or requirements prescribed by the FAA or CAPR 60-1.

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Page 4: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

“Commanders, Take Advantage of Your People!”

Colonel Bob Castle, CAP/SEA

Yes, you read that correctly! I’m telling you that it’s a good thing to take advantage of people. Let me add a caveat – when I say “take advantage”, what I’m really referring to is their knowledge and experience. Having served as a commander myself from the squadron through wing levels, I have a pretty good idea of how high the workload is. Dealing with program areas like finance and logistics that can be complicated and will get a commander in trouble faster than you can say “missing equipment.” Likewise, a commander may only have limited knowledge of Safety Management Systems (SMS), Risk Management (RM) and the new direction that CAP Safety has taken. But, that’s what your safety staff is for! National HQ Safety (CAP/SE) has been working to improve the flow of communications regarding safety matters throughout the country – primarily at the region level, but reaching out to the wings and in some cases unit level to answer questions and clarify intent. We try to keep commanders in the loop, so they know what’s going on with their safety program. However, commanders should never feel they need to act on safety matters alone, particularly if there are technical aspects involved. A good example might be an aviation mishap that occurs and the commander isn’t a pilot. In those types of situations, a commander shouldn’t hesitate to call on the experts within the unit for advice. Call your unit safety officer or Wing Director of Safety. Consult with the Director of Operations or Chief of Standardization/Evaluation. Those are the people who have the training and background to answer the majority of questions that come up when there’s a mishap. If they’re unable to find an answer, they know they can forward the query all the way to CAP/SE if needed. The point is, there are a lot of people to call on for help if a commander needs it. I‘d like to talk about one additional point. Reporting of mishaps is an important part of our Safety Management System. We’ve been working hard to change people’s attitudes towards reporting injuries and damage to equipment. Under the previous system, mishap reports were categorized and tracked and everyone knew exactly how many mishaps occurred in each wing and region. The statistics were published like it was some kind of report card on how well our safety program worked. Having a mishap, no matter how minor was viewed as “bad,” because it appeared as a “black mark” for the unit. When this happens, the tendency is for some people to “manage their statistics” rather than putting lasting improvements in place. People started talking of a goal of zero mishaps rather than a goal of staying safe. Unfortunately, that attitude towards safety encourages people to hide mishaps. After all, who wants to get in trouble for reporting that something got bent?

“A commander shouldn’t hesitate to call on the experts”

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Page 5: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

We want Commanders to support and actively encourage timely reporting. With reported mishaps, we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg. For every mishap reported there are probably a lot of near-misses and “almost mishaps.” We need to learn from all of those, and encourage our members to be a part of an honest and fair reporting system. You won’t get in trouble for reporting a mishap. The mishap will be reviewed and we’ll learn ways to keep it from happening again, whether that means changing the way we do business or getting some extra training where needed. One of the main reasons to report is to help our friends avoid making the same mistake. We’ve all heard of or seen examples where a mishap occurs and after the fact someone else will come up and say, “Gee, that same thing happened to me last week. I figured everybody else knew not to do that!” The important thing to remember is that people make mistakes. They generally don’t get up in the morning and think, “I think I’ll go injure myself during the meeting tonight.”

Reporting a mishap is about sharing and learning. We can’t learn from mishaps we don’t know about.

Let me know what you think about this topic. Let’s start a discussion.

[email protected]

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Page 6: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

Hangar Rash Ground Handling Mishaps

Would You Like to Help?

George Vogt, CAP/SE For those of you who are members of CAP aircrews, and even those who aren’t, there is no doubt you have heard different people, at different times in our history, talk about the problem of “hangar rash.” “Hangar Rash” is the term given to those usually minor aircraft mishaps where an aircraft is damaged when being taxied or parked or pushed or pulled, and it comes in contact with another aircraft or a fence or part of a hangar or some other object. I personally dislike the term “hangar rash” and this article is probably the last time you’ll hear me use it. I think it trivializes a problem that we can solve if we dive in, study it, get a full appreciation for all the factors that result in ground handling mishaps, then set out to address each of those causes.

The new approach won’t be about punishing people who find themselves involved in these mishaps, and then do the right thing and report them. It will be about learning the causes, assessing the hazards, mitigating the risks, fixing the processes, and training our people.

In the near future, I will reach out to members from all regions, and all duty positions to help me out. We’ll need commanders, operations people, safety people, maintenance people, and anyone else who wants to help. We’ll review all the guidance on how we’re supposed to park our airplanes, including the informal guidance, the word-of-mouth guidance, and any other guidance people feel they have to follow. We will look at all the decisions a crewmember faces when parking an airplane. We’ll review old mishaps to see what factors contributed to the ding or dent. We’ll look at the equipment. We’ll look at the hangars. In short, we’ll look at all the hazards we face when we park our airplanes, we’ll work to mitigate the risks and reduce the mishaps, and we’ll give everyone the decision making tools they need to do their part to reduce ground handling mishaps. Are you excited about participating? Contact us at [email protected] .

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Reporting Maintenance Problems George Vogt, CAP/SE

One of the primary causes for aircraft accidents is mechanical failure. The airlines know, and we know, that we need to monitor maintenance problems, look for trends, and use that data to reduce maintenance related mishaps. Because of that, we need for pilots to report all maintenance related problems, especially those that occur while airborne or after embarking to fly. That being said, we realize that reporting aircraft malfunctions in the SMS, especially those that happen on the ground, can be a burdensome and frustrating process. We want to fix that and we need your help. If you’ve ever complained about the process and said, “if I were in that office here’s what I’d do,” then you’re nominated to be part of the team. I will be forming a team of pilots, maintenance officers, IT experts, and safety folks to study what maintenance data we really need to track, how we can best gather that information, and how we can make the reporting process as easy as possible. This effort will result in changes to SMS input fields (including reducing the amount of info required if the problem happens on the ground) and changes to CAPR 62-2. Want to be a part of the process? Volunteer to help … it’s a lot more gratifying than just complaining .

[email protected]

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Page 7: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

Annual Safety Survey?

How are we doing so far?

George Vogt, CAP/SE

We’re a little over a month into the four month “annual safety survey” period and I thought I’d give you some feedback on what we’re hearing and what we’re seeing. I’ve gotten some comments and questions, which are always appreciated, and hopefully I can share some answers, some thoughts, and a request. The answer field for each question was supposed to allow for 1,000 characters in the answer; more than enough to give thorough answers. A programming glitch caused some of the early surveys to cut off before that, but it should be fixed now. A few people pointed out that it would be helpful to add a “save” function on the survey page so a person could save it, log out, and come back to it. Great idea; we’ll put that feature in future surveys. Based on your ideas, we will also give some thought to tailoring surveys so different questions are asked of squadrons, groups and wings. It might not be in the context of the annual survey, but we do plan to put out some smaller surveys targeting specific audiences and specific issues when we need to gather information. I’d also like to give some feedback on the completed surveys I’ve seen. Some are very well-written and it’s obvious you take pride in your programs. I’ve seen some excellent briefings attached to question 9, and I’ve seen some very thorough, completed hazard analysis worksheets attached to question 4…a lot of thought has gone into planning for what may seem to be routine events. However, I’ve also seen some surveys that are disappointing. I’m not sure if the safety officer filling out the survey just doesn’t have a safety program, or is disinterested in the whole survey process. I’ve seen blank checklist pages attached. I saw one survey where the respondent said what amounted to, ‘we don’t need to do hazard analysis and pre-activity briefings because we don’t do any high risk activities.’ Since he didn’t have an attachment to show, he typed something like ‘we don’t do high risk activities’ on a word document and attached that. Equally troubling is that they have checked the box that says they discussed the answers with their commander, and higher echelon commanders have read the surveys and approved them without comment. I know this is not indicative of their commitment to safety. I’m asking safety officer to take some time to share what you like and don’t like about the program. I’m asking squadron commanders to be involved with the way their safety programs are being depicted. Finally, I’m asking wing commanders to send these surveys back if they don’t reflect the safety programs or effort you’d like to set as your standard. This isn’t the old safety program where we just ask compliance questions and get you in trouble if you’re late. This is the new safety program where we all listen, we all learn, and we all take part. CAPR 62-1 says that the safety survey assesses “the effectiveness of each commander’s safety efforts.” Please take the time to put your best foot forward to make sure your safety survey shows us the effectiveness of your “safety efforts.”

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Page 8: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

Safety ShortS George Vogt, CAP/SE

Winter Safety Links For most of us in CAP, winter is either knocking on our doors or has already arrived. Here are a few links that might help our members prepare their homes, their family, their cars, their driving, and themselves for the winter weather ahead. For those of you in Florida, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii Wings, go ahead and buy yourself a light sweater…it’s bound to get a little chilly at some point this winter.

Protect your home: - http://www.bobvila.com/articles/502-winter-preparation-checklist/#.VjjourerTRY - http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/real-estate/T029-S001-12-ways-to-prepare-your-home-for-winter/index.html Protect your car: - http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/winterizing-your-vehicle/index.htm Protect your family: - http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/preparing-family-winter-weather - http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster/winter-storm Winter driving: - http://www.weather.com/safety/winter/news/five-winter-driving-tips-20120423 - https://www.osha.gov/Publications/SafeDriving.pdf Holiday drunk driving prevention: - http://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov/preHolidaySeason Beacon Distribution and Safety News We’re always looking for new ways to get word out that a new Beacon is published and to get it “in the hands” of as many members as possible without sending a mass e-mailing to every unit. We’ve been relying on commanders and directors of safety to send the link to every unit, and we’ll continue to do that. We’ve also added an announcement about each Beacon to the RSS “News” feed you all see when you log onto the new eServices page. Everyone who logs into eServices will see it and I ask everyone to take a few minutes to read the Beacon…full of safety news, processes, guidance, explanations, safety philosophy and a couple invitations to help us out with projects. National Safety Officer College We’ve had a few questions about the next National Safety Officer College. There will NOT be an NSOC in 2016. The next NSOC is tentatively planned for May or June of 2017. Actual date and location TBD. E-mails and Phone Calls Leave me a message! I get a lot of phone calls each day and I want to make sure I have a chance to answer all your questions. If you have a question or request, and I’m out of the office, PLEASE leave me a full message to tell me what you need. I might be able to answer your question when I sit down to do my evening e-mails. If it’s not an emergency, drop me an e-mail and I’ll make sure I get you a response as soon as I can. You can always make sure CAP/SE and CAP/SEA see your e-mail if you send it to:

[email protected]

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Page 9: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

September Mishap Closeouts Colonel Robert Castle, CAP/SEA

“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Sam Levenson

Over the course of the past year, George and I have been trying to provide useful safety information to our members with a goal to encourage discussion of timely safety topics within your units. That’s the reason we started including this monthly mishap recap in The Beacon. We can’t learn from the mistakes of others if they go unreported. I know the current online mishap reporting system can be a major pain, especially for those minor mishaps that are the most common to enter. We’re working on making it a lot easier for you to enter a mishap. A lot of computer programming is involved, so it’s going to take time to accomplish; please be patient. But you’ve been asking for a better process and we hear you loud and clear! In the meantime, please do your best to enter the mishaps, no matter how minor. It just might help prevent another member from making the same mistake! We like to hear from you – whether you disagree with what we’re writing, you have a good idea to share with the rest of our members, or you just want to let us know what a great job we’re doing, feel free to write us at [email protected]. Here are the mishaps that closed out in September: 21 Bodily Injury, 9 Aircraft, 2 Vehicle Bodily Injury PT Related – 7 Trips – 4 Faints – 3 Insect stings – 2

Twisted Ankles – 2 Cuts – 1 Burn – 1 Scrapes – 1

Since the moratorium on the Shuttle run began earlier this summer, I’m pleased to say that the number of injuries to cadets during CPFT has dropped dramatically. The new revision to CAPR 52-16, dated 1 November 2015 removes all references to the shuttle run. Units need to place emphasis on proper conditioning of cadets (and this includes senior members too) prior to engaging in physical activities. That includes nutrition and hydration. I include seniors because it’s easy to get busy and go all day without eating or drinking much. Then, if we decide to run with the cadets for encouragement, or end up hiking through rugged terrain as part of a search mission, the end result is predictable! It might surprise you that we occasionally see senior members injured when they try to “demo” a PT event to their cadets.

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Page 10: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

Aircraft - During preflight a dent was observed to be on the rudder of aircraft C-182T) while parked on the ramp. -- Cause of the damage is undetermined – possible “ramp rash”. - Aircraft (GA8) left wing struck fence along ramp while taxing to a parking spot. -- Two marshallers were parking multiple aircraft arriving on the ramp simultaneously. One marshaller positioned himself on the right side of the mishap aircraft however, the pilot-in- command did not see that marshaller and thinking one wasn’t available, attempted to taxi the mishap aircraft to parking and struck a fence with the aircraft’s left wing. Note: If you are ever “confused” or uncertain while taxiing an airplane, the one singular correct move is to STOP. - After completing normal run-up, aircraft (C-172S) took off. The first engine miss was heard and felt at 800 ft AGL. Throttle and mixture control were both in forward position. Both pilots acknowledged event and picked an interstate highway as a landing option. The second miss was more pronounced at 1,500 ft. Pilot made an immediate return to the airport and landed safely. -- A post landing magneto check was performed with an excessive left mag drop. The fuel drains were drained and no water was found. Inspected by a mechanic but the discrepancy could not be duplicated. Aircraft has flown fine since. - Cessna Float-plane. (172P ) On takeoff from a lake, using full water length, on step at rotation, approximately mid lake, heard a thud and aborted takeoff. Inspected the floats on site; there was no noticeable damage at the time, but unable to check bottom of float. Departed and returned to Seaplane Base. Upon final post-flight inspection, noticed deformation and damage to the lower aft bulkhead of the right/starboard float. -- An inspection by maintenance after the airplane was removed from the water found that the rear of the float had significant damage. The rear compartment was ripped open and flooded, affecting flotation and water drag to the extent that there was risk of capsize or loss of directional control during takeoff or on landing. Pumping the floats would have determined leakage and a check of the underside could then be carried out. Calling the FRO could have provided assistance, including maintenance help.

Note: Whenever something goes wrong, it seems our adrenalin starts flowing and we’re anxious to get moving. Slow down. Take the time to make sure everything is properly checked before resuming the mission. The attitude of “oh it’s probably alright” can be dangerous. Be sure YOU know the condition of YOUR aircraft before YOU takeoff.

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Page 11: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

-Crew showed up at hangar to transport aircraft (C-182T) and found damage to the top trailing edge of the rudder.

-- This same aircraft suffered elevator damage in July 2015 while being positioned into the hangar (see the September 2015 Beacon). At some point after the elevator repair was completed, persons unknown moved the aircraft, causing the rudder to contact a steel hangar beam.

- During preflight of aircraft (C-182R), found two small dimples on the top of the leading edge of the left horizontal stabilizer. -- Inspected by maintenance and determined to not affect the airworthiness of the airplane. - Birdstrike at the base of the windscreen (C-182R) on takeoff. Returned and landed safely. -- No Damage - While (C-172P) was undergoing annual inspection a mechanic discovered damage to elevator and elevator trim tab. -- Inspector stated that the damage appears to have been made when unknown ground handler pushed down on trailing edge of elevator with hands. Pilot who flew the airplane to the maintenance facility states that no damage was observed on the elevator during a thorough preflight inspection. - Engine started running rough (C-182T) while enroute on IFR proficiency flight. Landed safely at nearest airport. -- Number 5 cylinder exhaust valve stuck in the closed position causing the pushrod to bend causing the loss of #5 cylinder in flight. Engine had about 990 hours and CHTs below 400 degrees at time of incident. At the loss of the cylinder aircraft started shaking excessively due to rough running engine. Aircrew were able to keep the engine operating at a reduced rpm in order to make a controlled descent to the airport about 10 miles away.

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Page 12: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

Vehicle - Corporate vehicle driver door would not open more than 8 inches. The driver parallel parked the vehicle in a designated parking area and left the van for a short period of time. When the driver returned, he had difficulty opening the driver’s door; upon investigation, a dent was discovered on the driver’s side quarter panel. -- The conclusion is that something struck the vehicle during the time period that the driver was away from the van. No witnesses to mishap. - Discovered corporate vehicle had broken window on left rear door. -- The van was parked in a secure area and nothing was missing from it. The reporting person surmised that since the lawn around the area was recently cut, it was possible that a rock was thrown from a mower and impacted the window. However no rock was found inside the van.

September Hazard Notices Thanks again to those members who actively use the Hazard Report and Suggestion feature of the SMS. We are looking to make that feature a bit easier to find and easier to use. Sharing some of these hazard reports and suggestions will help us all take a closer look at our surroundings and the way we go about our CAP business. Perhaps these hazard reports and suggestions will give you some ideas and inspire you to take a closer look at your surroundings. Sometimes we get use to hazards when we see them every day; make sure you take a fresh look. - “Aluminum stairs to trailers reflect sunlight so strongly that they blind personnel, making it dangerous to use the stairs. Suggest horizontal surfaces be coated with non-reflective, non-skid paint.” -- Hazard Report submitted by Lt Col Stephen L Huss PCR-CA-080 -- An action reminder was sent to all units in the group. - “We meet in 2 of 3 trailers provided by TEMA. 1 Trailer has a damaged roof that has collapsed inward in the center and the floor has become soft from water damage. This entire trailer is unsafe and should not be used or entered. TEMA is in the process of removing items stored in the 3rd trailer so that we can use it in place of the one that is damaged, giving us 2 sound trailers for use.” -- Hazard Report submitted by 1Lt Timothy C Wynn SER-TN-093 - “The hazard is in the main walkway at the hangar. There is an area of the hangar that is under construction. The framing of the new construction is propped up with wood support standards. The cadets are having to straddle or crawl under the support standards. It was first noticed during an initial inspection of the hangar when I became safety officer.” -- Hazard Report submitted by 2Lt Joseph E Rosio SER-TN-093 -- CLOSED: Hazard corrected by moving the support standards to an overhead position.

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Page 13: A Word From the Commander - Civil Air Patrol · November 2015. A Word From the Commander . We are very pleased to welcome a new contributor to the Safety Beacon Newsletter. Our CAP

- “We as senior members need to make sure that we have an active list of cadet and senior members allergy lists posted available at all times during meetings and activities. Also, if there is a member with an EpiPen or other medication which must be carried on their person, all this must be noted and all senior members must be aware of the medications location of the member. A member medical history book made available at the activities would be a one stop resource for this information.” -- Suggestion submitted by Capt Marcus A Helms SER-GA-451

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Beacon Feedback?

We are always looking for suggestions on how we can make the Beacon better. We want to make sure we are including topics and covering issues that interest the members. Do you have an idea for an article? Is there a person or group in your unit that is improving the safety of the people around them? Let us know. Do you want us to explain a part of our new safety program? Is there something that you don’t understand about CAP Safety? Perhaps others have the same question you do. Let us know and we’ll get the word out. Do you like to write? Do you have a story to tell about aviation safety? Perhaps you have a personal experience? Maybe you experienced a close call while on a CAP mission or even while mowing your lawn at home. Tell us your story so we can all learn right along with you. The Beacon Newsletter is here to help the members understand the safety program and to provide everyone with a few tools and reminders the can use every day, so drop us a line and become part of the Beacon!

[email protected]

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